Category Archives: Egyptian Spring

Economic innovation, Egyptian Spring, human rights

“Let them eat cake” or “Give them cash” – Daily News Egypt

A more current and increasingly popular strategy in the world today is a cash transfer directly to the citizen. Through a food subsidy programme, a government rations food. The basic idea of a cash transfer is that instead of spending money on something like subsidies that cause so many market distortions (meaning there are bad consequences for many segments of the economy), the government gives the cash to individuals or households.

Brazil, Mexico, South Africa are among only a few countries that have had great success with cash transfer programmes. These programmes give money directly to the benefit of the elderly, children or households. Women are most often the recipients of the cash, as hundreds of studies have shown women to be more prudent spenders to the better benefit of their households.

These programmes are highly effective and represent great efficiency gains relative to a subsidy system, which means public money is better used to meet the goal of protecting the vulnerable. Efficiency is particularly important given the high budget deficit.

via “Let them eat cake” or “Give them cash” – Daily News Egypt.

Egyptian Spring, Fail!, Feminism, human rights, Indigenous Achievers

Sexual harassment leads Egyptian women to martial arts – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Sexual harassment leads Egyptian women to martial arts – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

For her part, Asra Saleh, who works in marketing, told Al-Monitor that she will join the campaign because she gets harassed daily. Saleh has filed several harassment claims but was forced to retract many of them because of societal pressure. And the police often do not treat her claims seriously. Despite that, she thinks that filing a harassment claim is very important, in addition to martial arts training for women, because they allow the girls’ voices to be heard.

Azza Kamel, president of the Centre for Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development (ACT) and a feminist activist, said in an interview with Al-Monitor that she welcomed the spread of those campaigns because women should be able to defend themselves at any time. “These campaigns are not new. The Shoft Tahrosh campaign had previously trained girls and conducted awareness campaigns that attracted volunteers to warn that harassment is a crime and is rejected by society,” Kamel said.

It should be said that self-defense is the best way to deal with sexual harassment, which has become a real threat to the moral fabric of Egyptian society. Harassment in Egypt is getting worse, and it is especially acute during demonstrations. Sexual harassment should not be tolerated, especially in light of the slow government action against it and the state’s preoccupation with fighting terrorism in Egypt and ignoring social problems, of which sexual harassment is one of the worst.

Reham Mokbel
Contributor, Egypt Pulse

Reham Mokbel is a political science researcher at the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. She is based in Cairo and is a freelance reporter for Deutsche Welle. Reham has a BA from the faculty of economics and political science in the English section at Cairo University and is preparing a master’s in international relations.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/anti-sexual-harassment-campaigns-egypt.html#ixzz2sJR0c3OL

Egyptian Spring, human rights

El-Beblawi tells Davos Al-Sisi is Egypt’s De Gaulle – Daily News Egypt

“Sisi is under popular pressure to run. This is like De Gaulle, like Eisenhower,” he said, referring to the French and US war heroes who later took political office.

In Egypt, Sisi is viewed as a saviour by the millions who took to the streets against the Muslim Brotherhood, but the followers of the Islamists revile him for what they say was a “coup” against Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

via El-Beblawi tells Davos Al-Sisi is Egypt’s De Gaulle – Daily News Egypt.

Egyptian Spring

In Egypt, watch the Nour Party – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

It’s hard to see any winner in Egypt’s messy political arena — one that is dominated by near-daily deadly confrontations between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military-backed interim leadership. However, there

‘s one political party steadily reinforcing its place in Egypt’s political scene: the Salafist Nour.

via In Egypt, watch the Nour Party – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Egyptian Spring, human rights

Egypt’s new political map – Daily News Egypt

First, the ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood did not tame political Islam in Egypt. In fact, the opposite is true. Al-Azhar wants to be the sole guardian of Islam in Egypt, while the anti-Muslim brotherhood Salafis want to be the protector of Sunni doctrine, and all the while the junta wants to enlist Islamism to serve their nationalist agenda.

Both al-Azhar figures and Salafis are passionately defending the army, but they are also defending the role of religion in the state. In their opinion, religion should not be abused in politics, but it should also not be banned. Pro-coup non- Brotherhood Islamists are fighting hard to weaken the most organised Islamist group in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, to capitalise on its downfall, and to enlarge their political base. Despite this, they are not united on a clear vision on how religion should be framed inside Egypt’s new constitution. The Salafi Al-Nour party is fighting hard to keep article 219 unchanged, while other scholars advocate removing it. Interestingly, other “moderate” Islamists such as Abul Fotouh have decided not to participate in the constitutional assembly. How all this will work out at the end is still unclear.

via Egypt’s new political map – Daily News Egypt.

Economic innovation, Egyptian Spring, Feminism, human rights

From Tunisia to Occupy and Beyond: The New Wave of Social Change, Past, Present and Future (pp. 1-68)

Open Systems expert Merrelyn Emery

The final section of the paper looks at the necessary and sufficient conditions

for the current wave to succeed; that is for it to enable a return to active adaptive

organizations and communities in which people may fulfil their destinies as the

purposeful systems they are and, thereby, tame the social field into one that supports and

fosters a new global culture of cooperation, wisdom and joy.

via From Tunisia to Occupy and Beyond: The New Wave of Social Change, Past, Present and Future (pp. 1-68).

Egyptian Spring, human rights, pseudo-freedom, terrorism

Egypt: Draft Law Would Effectively Ban Protests | Human Rights Watch

Would be huge mistake – this is how current government got in power – freedom cannot be protected without freedom to speak and protest…

A draft law on assembly awaiting ratification by the interim president would effectively give the police carte blanche to ban protest in Egypt. The bill would ban all demonstrations near official buildings, give the police absolute discretion to ban any other protest, and allow officers to forcibly disperse overall peaceful protests if even a single protester throws a stone.

via Egypt: Draft Law Would Effectively Ban Protests | Human Rights Watch.